Front Axle U Joint Question

Read the manual? About a 3 hour job, if properly tooled and skilled. Do both sides.

Get a BFH and start daily spraying with PB about a week before you want to do the job.

Getting the axle nut off can be hard. What worked for me was heating the nut with a propane torch for about a minute, spraying with PB blaster, tapping the nut hard all around with a length of lead pipe and a hammer and then using an 18 inch breaker bar. Came off pretty easy after this treatment (before this I couldn=B4t remove it even with a 4 foot tube on the breaker bar).

Ed Wojciechowski wrote:

It always amazes me that folks go and take off that nut or basically take the hub apart. That nut holds the wheel bearings in place and the pressed in bearings in place. Unless you are going to change the hub, there is no reason to undo that bolt from my experience. The hub and axle all remove as one piece.

If you have that nut off and use an axle puller or slide hammer, you will destroy the hub. It will fall apart. It still could get wrecked if you use a slide hammer. The bearings can crumble. You would be hammering and have a shear pressure issue with the bearing cages.

The trouble is getting the hub off the steering frame. I soak everything for a couple days if I have the time with penetrating oil, then I unbolt the 3 bolts holding the hub in place. I personally have a spare bolt the right size that I use to thread halfway back in so I can pound on it with a 'BFG' or big !@#$% hammer. I do one top one, then the bottom one with the steering cut hard to one side, then I turn the steering hard the other way to get at the back top one to beat on it. It takes very hard solid hits to get the hub moving.

One thing to watch for is the axle seals. if the u-joint has been vibrating for a long time, it might have taken out the axle seals. These are located inboard inside the pumpkin. The OP should check the tube for fluid. If there is fluid in the tube, he needs seals. It is something like 3 or 4 hours shop rate to change the suckers, so while it's open... They punch out easy enough, but you need a threaded rod and washers the right size to pull the seal back in place or a special Jeep tool for axle seals. Basically a fancy threaded rod....

Mike

I put antiseize on mine when I put the hub back into the steering knuckle and when I had to change the u-joint the second time (POS 'lifetime' joint you can't grease so they fail in a couple years or even as soon as 8 months for one) the hub popped out really easily the second time. I noticed it as we were loading for a trip and had the sucker changed out within an hour including going to get the part.

The first time, well..... I have that sacrificial bolt for a reason.... ;-)

Mike

I had a '96 GC (now sold) and it had CV joints with boots instead of u-joints. Are these harder to change than u-joints?

L.W.(Bill) Hughes III wrote:

Once you have access to the axle, then you can swap the part. Getting the hub out of the steering knuckle is still an SOB of a job the first time.

Usually CV joints come with the whole axle, in other words the suckers are expensive. Shops do sell rebuilt units around here.

Even in just buying a new CV joint vs a u-joint there is quite the price difference.

Mike

nrs did pass the time by typing:

They are the same. Actually you can swap CV and U-Joint axle assemblies.